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<title>Battle Against a Misanthropic Opponent by Comrade Lucia (Quantin_of_the_Lethe)</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27325417">Battle Against a Misanthropic Opponent</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quantin_of_the_Lethe/pseuds/Comrade%20Lucia'>Comrade Lucia (Quantin_of_the_Lethe)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Mother 3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Team as Family, Trans Female Character, Trans Girl Lucas (Mother 3)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 22:26:55</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,539</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27325417</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quantin_of_the_Lethe/pseuds/Comrade%20Lucia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Lucia, Duster, Kumatora, and Boney head east out of Tazmily...and face off against a very strange robot.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Battle Against a Misanthropic Opponent</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This story is interactive! The links go to music that acts as a soundtrack. This story was inspired by this music, so it's kinda important to get that immersive experience. But not required!</p><p>Torkdrift doesn't have a voice in Super Mario Odyssey, but I always imagined it sounding like the Daleks from 1960s/1970s Doctor Who.</p><p>Also, 'Lucia' is pronounced 'lyoosha'. Just for the record.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgPszkuoNg0">[S: Escaping]</a>
</p><p>"So are you Lucia full-time now, or...?" Duster asked as the party slunk out of town in the dead of night.</p><p>"Why are you asking her that now?!" Kumatora hissed. "Ask when we're in a slightly <em>better</em> position! Like, not trying to get caught by the pigs!"</p><p>"Sorry," he muttered. "I like to have <em>some</em> levity when escaping from a police state. Plus, I figured it was polite, you know? I don't want to hurt Lucia's feelings on acci--"</p><p>"I <em>appreciate</em> the thought, but shut up, dumbass!"</p><p>Duster threw up his hands. "Okay, okay! Fine! But I'm gonna complain the whole time." She glared at him, as if she was about to put him on the business end of PK Freeze. "Okay, maybe not the <em>whole</em> time."</p><p>Lucia rolled her eyes, and ducked around the corner. No cops, and the Pigmasks were asleep. If they were gonna go down the rail tunnel... "Now's our chance," she whispered. "Follow me." She crouched and made sure to stick alongside the buildings, stopping at the slightest hint of movement. "Okay, now!" She, Kumatora, Duster, and Boney dashed into the tunnel and didn't stop running until the tunnel entrance was but a dot. They stopped to catch their breath.</p><p>"Okay, so are we in the clear now?" Duster asked.</p><p>"Sufficiently," Lucia said. "Still have a ways to go. There's a forest and hot springs coming up, I'm pretty sure."</p><p>"Sooooo...?"</p><p>"Yes, I am Lucia all the time now."</p><p>"Okay. Just making sure."</p><p>"So now that <em>that's</em> out of the way, we should probably prepare for whatever is about to come up," Kumatora said. "Does anyone have a flashlight?"</p><p><em>Click.</em> Lucia stood there holding a giant flashlight that illuminated nearly the entire tunnel. They saw things scurrying in the distance. <em>Nothing my bat can't handle,</em> she thought to herself.</p><p>"Thanks, Lucia," Duster said. He turned to Kumatora. "How are you feeling?"</p><p>"I'm feeling okay. A little light-headed, but that hot springs sounds nice right about now. Let's get out of here. Speaking of," Kumatora said, pointing to something flying about ten feet in front of them. "Lucia, do you want the honor?"</p><p>"Leave it to me and my bat."</p><p>"Fuck 'em up, sis," she said, clapping her on the back.</p><p>Lucia focused on how the bat felt in her hand, loosening her wrist, making sure to maintain proper form. She found what Kumatora had been pointing to: a Batty. Just...a Batty. Lucia was uneasy that it was only a Batty, and nothing else. Surely there was something else hiding in the darkness...? But nope, just this Batty. She smiled. It was almost unfair. She spun the bat around in her hand, then swung for the fences.</p><p>Perfect hit. <em>SMAAAAAAASH!</em> She could hear the Batty screech as it landed very, very far away, faintly echoing through the tunnel.</p><p>"Nice job!" Duster said.</p><p>"Nothing I haven't done a billion times before, and will do a billion times more," Lucia said nonchalantly, spinning her bat like a revolver before storing it in her pack.</p><p>"God, you're turning into a mini-Kuma."</p><p>"What's the matter, big guy? Two bad girls too much for you?" Kumatora taunted, playfully punching Lucia in the arm. Whereas before, when she might've cried, now Lucia laughed.</p><p>"Come on, you two," he said. "There's still a lot of tunnel left."</p><p>They emerged from the tunnel a while later. Just how later, they didn't know, and it was still night, but the moon had nearly completed its transit across the sky. "Alright, the hot springs should be up that cliffside," Lucia said pointing through the small cluster of trees separating them from the wall of rock. "Now, we're almost--"</p><p>"SH!" Kumatora hissed. "Do you hear something?" They stood there silently. Sure enough, in the forest, they heard a gently humming, like a vacuum cleaner. "Well," Duster said quietly, "whatever it is, it's in our way." They walked through the forest, the humming getting gradually louder, until--</p><p>
  <em>SNAP.</em>
</p><p>They didn't know which one of them stepped on what, but the vacuuming sound stopped, replaced by a deep, thrumming drone. Something <em>huge</em> was moving, and it was <em>close</em>.</p><p>
  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7So18KnuS5Q">[S: Torkdrift]</a>
</p><p>They looked up to see a massive metal saucer, looking at them with two large light sensors on snail-like stalks. It tapered off at a nasty metal point on its bottom side. Three glowing orbs circled it. <em>Must be some kind of power supply,</em> Lucia thought.</p><p>"PEEK-A-BOO," it said in a loud, screeching voice. "I SEE YOU!"</p><p>"Quick, Boney, smell it!" she whispered. "Smells vulnerable to electricity!" Boney barked. "Smells vulnerable to brute force!"</p><p>"I BET YOU HUMANS THOUGHT YOU COULD JUST WALTZ THROUGH MY FLOWER PATCH, DIDN'T YOU?" Torkdrift screamed.</p><p>"Flower bed?!" Kumatora yelled back. "It's pitch goddamned black out, moron, how are we supposed to <em>see</em>?!"</p><p>"DO NOT BLAME ME FOR YOUR INFERIOR CONSTRUCTIONS, HUMANS, I DO NOT CARE!"</p><p>"Eat my entire ass!"</p><p>Torkdrift's light sensors flashed red, and its 'voice' pitched deep.</p><p>"DO NOT TRIFLE WITH ME, BIPED."</p><p>It started charging something in its metal tip that sounded an awful lot like a laser. "SHIT!" Kumatora yelled. "Get ready to run!"</p><p>"How do we even <em>beat</em> this thing?!" Duster yelled back. "Electricity and brute force!" Lucia said as she looked over Torkdrift for any weaknesses. She saw a glass dome that housed what looked like its central processing. If she could somehow get up there...</p><p><em>BOOM.</em> Torkdrift discharged a laser shot that radiated outwards like a lasso. "JUMP!" Kumatora yelled. "UNLESS YOU LIKE NOT HAVING FEET!"</p><p><em>BOOM.</em> Lucia noticed the flying saucer constructing protective barriers around its orbiting power sources. <em>That must be the brute force aspect of this fight,</em> she thought. "DUSTER!" she yelled. "THROW ME UP THERE!"</p><p>He looked sheepishly, then yelled over to Kumatora to help him.</p><p>"Okay, on the count of three!"</p><p>"One! Two! Aaaaaand...THREE!" Lucia reached out, grabbed the edge of the protective wall, and started smashing with her bat. She made quick work of it, and broke the first orb in three clean hits. Torkdrift crashed to the ground, its glass dome exposed. "KUMATORA!" she yelled out, jumping down. "PK THUNDER!"</p><p>"RIGHT!" Kumatora focused her fire on the dome. <em>CRAAAAAASH!</em> A massive shock of electricity surged and fried Torkdrift, but it was soon back on its right-side-up, encasing its two remaining power orbs in bricks. "SO YOU MORTALS THINK THAT YOU CAN BEAT ME? NAUGHTY, NAUGHTY!" And it spat out a charge shot that narrowly missed Lucia, Duster, and Boney, but caught Kumatora squarely in the chest.</p><p>"Kuma!" Duster cried out, not thinking twice. Torkdrift swiveled its sensors straight towards him.</p><p><em>Shit,</em> he thought. <em>Me and my big mouth.</em></p><p>"I TOLD YOU NOT TO TRIFLE!" Another laser pulse that nearly cleaned him off at the waist. Then, Torkdrift crashed to the ground again.</p><p>"Duster! Smash it with my bat!" came Lucia's voice as she jumped down from the tree she'd used to take out its second power orb. So Duster smashed, his best attack yet. He just vented all of his frustrations out into this stupid flying saucer. It eventually threw him off.</p><p>"YOU PUNY EARTHLINGS!" Torkdrift screamed. "I WILL SHOW YOU THE TRUE POWER OF THE MECHA-SPINDRIFT! YOU BIPEDS WILL FOREVER RUE THE DAY YOU STEPPED IN MY FLOWER PATCH!"</p><p>"I really wish," Kumatora said, brushing herself off, "that you'd shut the hell up! LUCIA!"</p><p>"On it!" And Lucia, who'd taken the risky gamble of climbing onto Torkdrift's mantle while the robot was down, jumped onto the last protective brick and smashed at it with her bare hands. She put all of her force into her left foot as she jumped down onto the power orb. <em>CRACK!</em> The glass shattered, Lucia fell, and a huge PK Thunder strike wiped Torkdrift from the face of the Earth.</p><p>The group regathered, panting. "Kuma? Are you alright?" Duster asked.</p><p>"Yeah, I am, and I told you to stop calling me that."</p><p>"Sorry, sorry." They both turned to their youngest party member.</p><p>"And <em>you</em>, missy," Duster said, "were magnificent."</p><p>"Top form!" Kumatora declared. "You kicked the shit out of that flying dinner plate."</p><p>"I..." Lucia began.</p><p>"Look, just accept the compliment," Kumatora said, smiling. "Or I'm gonna tease you about it all night."</p><p>"Can we tease Lucia in the hot spring?" Duster whined. "I'm sore."</p><p>"Oh, right!"</p><hr/><p>"Ahhhhhhhh," Lucia said, relaxed. She let her hair down, letting the heat work its magic on her muscles, which were all tied in knots.</p><p>"I know, right?" Kumatora said, letting it all hang out. "This is the <em>life</em>."</p><p>"Literally the best thing we have on this god-forsaken rock," Duster said.</p><p>Boney was curled next to the hot spring, sleeping contentedly.</p><p>"Besides each other, of course," he added.</p><p>"Yeah," Kumatora said, smiling at Lucia and mussing up her hair. "Besides each other."</p><p>Lucia took a deep breath as she looked at the vibrant night sky slowly transition into day, the very first hint of sun creeping over the horizon. <em>Just like me,</em> she thought. <em>The sun dawning over a new horizon, a new life.</em> She'd lost her family, but had found a new one in the meantime.</p><p>For just that moment, she felt content and happy for the first time in years.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So the responses to my first Mother fic were so overwhelmingly positive I decided to make it a bigger thing. These'll probably stick to being oneshots. Originally I thought that it would just entail retelling the story of Mother 3 from the perspective of Lucia, but then I realized that Lucia's existence would change the story to such a degree that it warrants its own AU.</p><p>Torkdrift is a Mother boss in a Mario game. Its boss music sounds like Mother boss music, and it's goofy enough to be a Mother boss. There's actually a lot of Mother-esque moments in SM:Odyssey, so I might do more fics inspired by that music.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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